The only thing about the Stratas is that pretty much nobody stocks them, they'd be a special order. But they're well worth the wait!

Bermuda

Yeah, kinda figured that....kind of like some of the Aquarian heads. The local shops in my area have lots of Remo and Evans standard heads. Only one shop in my area stocks any Aquarian and its a pretty limited supply.

These drums really light up after the stock heads are off and the good mylar goes on.
I went with Aquarian Super2 Coated with a clear G1 underneath and I couldn't be happier with the tone.

Cool bobdadruma, I've used the Response 2 on my 12" tom and Super 2 on the 14" floor for my Gretsch kit so I'm at least familiar with those heads. I see that you ordered the matching snare for your Club Date...how do you like it? I ordered the 6.5x14 with mine.

The snare is still on backorder and it should arrive in a few weeks.
I can't wait until it arrives.
It really is like Jon said when he mentioned that the 60's vibe was alive and well in these drums even though the shells are not the same as vintage.

I love to crank them up tight like Bonham and wail away on them with full hit big sound.

The snare is still on backorder and it should arrive in a few weeks.
I can't wait until it arrives.
It really is like Jon said when he mentioned that the 60's vibe was alive and well in these drums even though the shells are not the same as vintage.

I love to crank them up tight like Bonham and wail away on them with full hit big sound.

Nice! Well if my snare arrives sooner I'll let you know how it sounds. I can't wait to hear it for myself!

Took my kit on a gig Saturday, and it killed! It's absolutely the best "cheap" kit I own!

As with most lower priced Asian-made kits, the budget heads need to be replaced. ALL of them. My heads of choice are Evans, Strata 1000 batters and G1 clear resos on the toms, and EMAD on the kick. Currently I have a Ludwig reso on the kick, but that will become an EQ3 soon.

I found that the toms sing when tuned high, and have a resonant growl when tuned low, but get a bit boxey in the middle. So if you play jazz, or want a nice deep growl, you won't be disappointed. Also, due to the rounded bearing edges, these drums will respond best with 1-ply heads. The kick has a nice old-school thump, the pillow shown was actually a bit much, I pulled it out and got a nice short boom. It also likes to be tuned either high or low.

These are a real joy to play, I get a nice vintage vibe from them. Definitely my new kit of choice for acoustic gigs where I want a nice, round sound!

Took my kit on a gig Saturday, and it killed! It's absolutely the best "cheap" kit I own!

As with most lower priced Asian-made kits, the budget heads need to be replaced. ALL of them. My heads of choice are Evans, Strata 1000 batters and G1 clear resos on the toms, and EMAD on the kick. Currently I have a Ludwig reso on the kick, but that will become an EQ3 soon.

I found that the toms sing when tuned high, and have a resonant growl when tuned low, but get a bit boxey in the middle. So if you play jazz, or want a nice deep growl, you won't be disappointed. Also, due to the rounded bearing edges, these drums will respond best with 1-ply heads. The kick has a nice old-school thump, the pillow shown was actually a bit much, I pulled it out and got a nice short boom. It also likes to be tuned either high or low.

These are a real joy to play, I get a nice vintage vibe from them. Definitely my new kit of choice for acoustic gigs where I want a nice, round sound!

Bermuda

Cool! That's nice to hear. Looks like you were kinda stuffed in the corner for this particular gig....sure looks familiar. Did you have any elbow room! :) That's a nice clean set up with the single braced stands. I did order the Strata's for the toms, I wanted to try them. I'm going to use a Aquarian Modern Vintage Medium on the snare. I wonder how similar the Modern Vintage is to the Strata, both being 10mil coated heads?

I found that the toms sing when tuned high, and have a resonant growl when tuned low, but get a bit boxey in the middle. So if you play jazz, or want a nice deep growl, you won't be disappointed. Also, due to the rounded bearing edges, these drums will respond best with 1-ply heads. The kick has a nice old-school thump, the pillow shown was actually a bit much, I pulled it out and got a nice short boom. It also likes to be tuned either high or low.

Bermuda

I agree 100%. I use two ply coated batters on the toms but I went with Aquarian Super-2 because they are a 7 and 5 mil ply combination and not as thick as standard 2 ply. I tried a coated Emp on the high tom and I didn't like it.
I tune tight on both the toms and the bass. I tune the bottom head slightly higher than the top.
I use a clear PS4 bass batter. I ported the stock reso with a 4 inch hole and I used a felt across it to dampen for a nice solid thump with a hint of boom. Again I tune um up tight.
I love the bass drum!

I don't think that I ever tuned any of my ~round edge~ kits loose. I have owned both vintage Slingerland and Gretsch. I reserve looser tunings for my sharp edge kits.

Bermuda,
Taking into account your bias, would you say that these are leagues ahead or merely far better than the Gretsch Catalina Club kits? I've been really unhappy with mine lately, especially the fidgety hardware.

I was looking at your kit from the other thread. I like the BD mounted cymbal arms! Are those Ludwig hardware or? Where did you get them? I think I would like to add the mount for a ride cymbal.

Gibraltar makes the ones that I have. I bought them from Musician's Friend.
I have one of those cymbal mounts on another kit that I own. No problems with them. I have had that mount for years on my Tama Stagestar jazz kit.
Ludwig also has their version. The Ludwig ones are more expensive.

Gibraltar makes the ones that I have. I bought them from Musician's Friend.
I have one of those cymbal mounts on another kit that I own. No problems with them. I have had that mount for years on my Tama Stagestar jazz kit.
Ludwig also has their version. The Ludwig ones are more expensive.

Thanks Bob, I'll check those out by Gibralter from MF. Appreciate the heads up.

OK, as promised. A couple of pictures. I have not had a chance to set anything up. These are the same color as Bermuda's. Just got to open the boxes for a quick inspection. First off, I haven't found anything wrong with the build. Wrap is great, all the hardware is there, no blems at all. Bearing edges are round and smooth. Yeah!

Thanks bobda, It's funny, the shells smell good. lol
This kit reminds me of the set I had back in high school. As a moderately priced set I wasn't sure what they would be like. Yours and Bermuda's set looked great which is part of what prompted me to buy them, plus I was looking for a 4 piece in these sizes. That fact that these look somewhat like these:

Gibraltar makes the ones that I have. I bought them from Musician's Friend.
I have one of those cymbal mounts on another kit that I own. No problems with them. I have had that mount for years on my Tama Stagestar jazz kit.
Ludwig also has their version. The Ludwig ones are more expensive.

And the DW bass drum cymbal mounts are more robust, have two memory locks, toothless tilters, unique cymbal tightening hardware and are manufactured in two different lengths, but again a bit more expensive.

I have had my Ludwig Club Date SE shell pack for several months now. Great build quality on my drums. I like the near-vintage sound this low cost kit. While I was never that fond of the "old school" extra long t rods, the silver sparkle wrap (sort of) hides the look of the long rods. For functionality, I strongly prefer this over rods and hardware from the '60s. The modern steel is strong and light in weight! Two thumbs up as a great low cost kit.

For any of you who want longer spurs, try this temporary solution. I used a steel coupling nut and a three-inch threaded steel rod to extent mine. Gibraltar air suspension feet went on the three-inch rod. Some teflon tape on the threads to get a tight fit. Save the Ludwig feet in order to return it quickly to the stock configuration. Worked well for me.

While I do not have a pic of the extended spurs, here is a pic of my Ludwig Club Date SE shell pack. Sizes are: 13x9, 16x16, 22x14.

I just bought these and got them in the mail yesterday. Seems there aren't many left. Ludwig is apparently doing another run in Fall 2013, but not in blue oyster.

Bearing edges, great. Wrap finish, gorgeous. Lugs/rods, good.

One major flaw. The bass drum hoops are total garbage. They look great, but are so flimsy I can't tune the heads and get any resonance out of them, the hoops pull out of round and won't conform the head to the bearing edge evenly. If you run your finger around the hoop edge where it meets the collar of the head you can feel where they pull out of round with tension. Very bummed that I have to drop an extra $100 new ones, but I had this problem with the Gretsch Club Catalina that I bought years ago (20x20) kick. I think that's a risk with import kits.

Other than that, the toms sound great - they tuned up quite nicely, even with the stock heads (some Chinese low-grade Evans single ply). I got some coated ambassadors.

I can say with certainty that they are the best sounding drums I've ever owned (a caveat that this is my entry into the foray of vintage/round-over bearing edge shell builds). But they came along at the perfect time, because I was looking at vintage kits, and everything I saw that was in decent shape was around $1000 and had 12/14s and 20 inch bass drum. And the mounting hardware always left a lot to be desired, of course.

So, the Club Date "Fab 3"...the best logical solution - and a tremendously affordable one withe a beatiful wrap finish.

I replaced all of the heads except the resos. The toms had the cheapo versions of an Evans G1 (I think?) I replaced them right away with Remo Coated Ambassadors. The batter on the kick was a clear cheapo Evans/Ludwig with the kind of "second layer" dampening ring on the inside collar - the front was a similar coated version. I've never been a fan of that kind of head - I don't like the dampening methods of a head to rest on the bearing edge because I can never seem to get a decent tuning out of them. I replaced both sides with Remo Coated Ambassadors.

The toms are fantastic and tuned up wonderfully/with ease. I LOVE the 13/16 combo. It's my first 13" rack tom, and I love the extra inch both in terms of sound and positionality. It decreases my reach just slightly more than the 12s I've used in the past, and the versatility of tuning is so much greater - it can either provide a thunderous low tuning or a more overtone-y high jazz style tuning. The 16 is equally impressive - great range. Not a ton of bass frequency/low mids, as is my general experience with 16s (as opposed to a 14, which seem to be almost problematic in their lo-frequency resonance). A great sounding drum. And the legs are nice and long so it can be raised to a decent height. A friend has a Ludwig 16" floor from the sixties in blue oyster that he loaned me so I'd have 2 floors, but I was disappointed to learn that the legs of the vintage drum were quite a bit shorter and I can't get it high enough to match my new one. It also doesn't sound nearly as good, but it's pretty beat.

The bass drum is my first 22 x 14. I've been wanting shallower bass drum for years, so this fit the bill. Unfortunately, it was the most disappointing aspect of the kit in stock form. I made some mods, and now I love it.

The hoops on the bass drum are JUNK. When I tried to tune it, I could not get the head to seat properly, there were dead spots and "flappiness" in one spot, ringing in another. No matter what I did, I could not get them consistent. I experienced exactly the same type of problem with a Gretsch Catalina Club Mod that I got some years ago - the hoops would not seat evenly on the bearing edge of the shell no matter how hard I tried - it's almost like the pull out of round. I believe this to be a combination of them being too flexible and not being properly seated/sized. Extremely disappointing. However, I took the maple hoops I have on another drum, put them on the Ludwig, problem solved. I do find the bass drum with the roundover edge build a bit more difficult to tune because the pitch seems to be more "diffuse" and tricky to dial in evenly from lug point to point and seems to be exacerbated the larger the diameter of the drum, but I just kind of ballpark it and it seems to work out ok.

The bannana mount on the bass drum is terrible. The tom would slouch when I played, no matter how hard I tried to crank it down (the knurling was shallow and the metal cheap - it started to grind off right away). The other part is that it is not easily removable - you basically have to disassemble the unit to take it off, preventing you from easily putting it in a case. Likewise, the legs need to be completely removed - they do not fold tightly against the drum enough to put it in a case.

The single center-mount bowtie lugs are a mixed bag. On one hand, there is less attachment to the shell, which is probably good from a resonance standpoint. On the other hand, the tension rods are very long and exposed. My suspicion is that these are going to get bashed/bent over time, particularly on the bass drum which will have the tripod of cymbal stands being positioned next to it.

Overall, an awesome kit which requires a few mods, and still an improvement on the original.

Interestingly enough, they made a limited run of snare drums with a 4-ply re-ring design, in both 5 and 6.5 depths, but I could not find the re-ring build in Blue Oyster - only 6 ply cherry/gum/cherry like the toms. I did find a Marine Pearl re-ring build for $179. I was very excited about the re-ring build at such an affordable price.

However, when I got the drum, the re-ring had a long gash in it where the re-ring met the 4 ply and they had filled it in with wood putty! It appeared not to be as much of a structural issue as a cosmetic one. I was very disappointed, but the seller was excellent to give me a $60 discount on the drum.

I tuned it up, put some Puresound wires on it, and it sounds fantastic. Nice and fat and somewhat dark with a good pop. The throw is garbage, as most economy drums are. I have had a hard time getting a consistent tuning out of the snare side diplomat head - it's weird - it depends on where I strike the head - the pitch is even near the lug, but struck about 3 inches in, it's lower and it is very inconsistent around the different areas of the head. I've never had a tuning behave like that and I'm not sure what to attribute it to. I checked the edges for any rocking and there was none, but I have not attempted to shine a light through it.